The robot takeover can wait
Is It Cake? And why that question gives me hope
While we nonchalantly wait for the robots to take over, I find an optimistic pulse in an unlikely place: Is It Cake?
The following is not a review or examination of the unarguably stupid and impossibly delightful series. I’m not sure there is anything to actually review. The concept is pretty straightforward: Bakers make cakes that look like real things, and the b-list celebrity judges try to guess which one is the real cake in a line up of like items. That’s the whole rig— nothing more, nothing less.
But it goes deeper than that. Is It Cake? is for the people. No matter where you come from, who you support politically, and whether or not you believe the Earth is flat or round. As a viewer, the only contentious energy is rooted in one simple question: Is it cake? And that boosts my belief in the human spirit.
In our daily lives we are constantly pulled toward conflict. Algorithms feed on our most visceral emotions. We side with dislike far more often than we cozy up next to empathy, let alone kindness. There is something profoundly refreshing about a show that boils human curiosity down to its most innocent form. The stakes are delightfully low. There is no impending societal collapse hinging on whether or not a judge correctly identifies a cake shaped like a Croc or a Fendi handbag. There are no comment sections. There are no tribal affiliations. There is no moral grandstanding. Just people—often incredibly skilled kitchen folk—spending hours sculpting hyper-realistic cakes for no reason other than the fun of it.
That’s where the optimistic pulse picks up its BPM. There is comfort in the mundane— we live in an era where we have the technology to create AI-generated content indistinguishable from human work, where deepfakes blur the lines of reality, and where misinformation spreads faster than truth. Yet, amidst all of that, here we are, glued to our screens, collectively marveling at whether or not something is made of sponge and fondant. Sugary tricks, sure. But AI-generated gateaus they are not.
We like to think of ourselves as a species of super advanced beings— ‘WE’VE BEEN TO THE MOON!’ But if the internet turned off tomorrow we’d revert to the way we did things for the first 300,000 years. We’d still drink. We’d still laugh. We’d still fuck. And we’d still fight. We’d just have less to do while we poop.
Is It Cake? is like a little hug, reassuring us: 'It’s going to be okay.'
The show, in all its absurdity, reminds me that people will always find joy in simple, shared experiences. It’s a reminder that curiosity, humor, and wonder can still unite us, even if just for the length of one stupid episode. Because at the end of the day, whether you are a scientist, a conspiracy theorist, a politician, or a baker, we all want to know the answer to life’s most pressing question:
Is it cake?